Set aside about 17 minutes and watch this wonderful video. Joshua Katz, a high school teacher, connects all the dots.

This is a truly outstanding presentation. Watch it and help it go viral.

He shows how our present “toxic culture of education” is hurting kids, stigmatizing them as early as third grade by high-stakes standardized testing, while the vendors get rich.

He connects the dots: the testing corporations get rich while our children suffer. He names names: Pearson, McGraw-Hill, ALEC, and more.

The high-stakes tests demoralize many children, label them as worthless, demand “rigor,” while ignoring the children before us, their needs and their potential. As he says, we are judging a fish by whether he can climb a tree and labeling him a failure for his inability to do so. We ignore the development of non-cognitive skills, of character and integrity, as we emphasize test scores over all…

This is a picture of Fionn aged 3, we leave hanging in the hall….its a reminder of how confused and out of his depth he was. He was LOST…all around him was unnatural to him…This is Fionn half way through his Nursery year – in the Christmas Play.

At home:

• Fionn had a great vocabulary and a very polite private school delivery!
• was a happy wee boy with his immediate family and a few close friends.
• Cousins aunts and uncles in the house would throw his confidence.
• He would call me from the door “Helen I need you”..yet he wouldn’t come in.
• Yet he hugged us, hugged my parents…
• When my younger nephew was standing between Fionn and the DVD he wanted on, Fionn would swipe him aside…yet when i would take Fionn offside, he was SO upset, as he didn’t genuinely see what else he could have done.
• People…

I have Aspergers, and I tend to:

1. Fixate on a certain problem or puzzle, and process this for weeks, if not months, until some part of me reaches a solution. During this time, I may seem frantic, melancholic, elated, discouraged, confused, shattered, and exhausted. As soon as I have a sense of closure, I might feel bewildered and ashamed of my behavior. There will be a brief reprieve, until my brain latches on to another puzzle to solve.
2. Over-process certain events and happenings, particularly exact words used and sentences used by others, as I try to determine the underlying facts and supposed truth. This will reveal itself in multiple questions and inquiry on my part; sometimes the same questions over and over; the repetitive nature is involuntary and necessary, as it brings some relief to the messages circling in my mind. In such cases, it is best for…